The softer side of Anna Wintour

The intimidating editor of US Vogue has shown the world her softer, more natural side, showcasing her sprawling garden in The New York Times’ T Magazine.

This rare private snapshot of Anna Wintour’s Long Island retreat is accompanied by a video tour with the garden’s creator Miranda Brooks, filmed by Barbara Anastacio.

According to T Magazine’s Paige Dickey the garden has been in development for the past 20 years. “My friendship with Miranda is one of the great joys of my life,” Wintour told Dickey. “She has given me and my family a very special world.”

It seems the relationship is mutual. “It is the base, the backbone, of my American gardens,” Brooks says of the 161,474 square-metre garden in the article.

In the profile, featuring photographs by Ricardo Labougle, we are given a glimpse of a softer side to Wintour, who is often portrayed by the media as an ice queen, earning her the nickname “Nuclear Wintour”. Here on the estate, which is two combined properties, soft grasses, peonies and informal arrangements contradict Wintour’s reputation as a fan of complete control.